as not
in the seventeenth century much reason to prefer one of the Reformed
Churches to Catholicism, except for the sake of political freedom. It
being impossible to change the State-religion in Venice, Sarpi had no
inducement to leave his country and to pass his life in exile among
prejudiced sectarians.]

Very much depends on how we define the word Protestant. If Sarpi's
known opinions regarding the worldliness of Rome, ecclesiastical abuses,
and Papal supremacy, constitute a Protestant, then he certainly was one.
But if antagonism to Catholic dogma, repudiation of the Catholic
Sacraments and abhorrence of monastic institutions are also necessary to
the definition, then Sarpi was as certainly no Protestant. He seems to
have anticipated the position of those Christians who now are known as
Old Catholics. This appears from his vivid sympathy with the Gallican
Church, and from his zealous defense of those prerogatives and
privileges in which the Venetian Church resembled that of France. We
must go to his collected letters in order to penetrate his real way of
thinking on the subject of reform. The most important of these are
addressed to Frenchmen--Ph. Duplessis Mornay, De l'Isle Groslot,
Leschassier, a certain Roux, Gillot, and Casaubon. If we could be quite
sure that the text of these familiar letters had not been tampered with
before publication, their testimony would be doubly valuable. As it is,
no one at all acquainted with Sarpi's style will doubt that in the main
they are trustworthy. Here and there it may be that a phrase has been
inserted or modified to give a stronger Protestant coloring. The
frequent allusion to the Court of Rome under the title of _La
Meretrice_, especially in letters to Duplessis Mornay, looks
suspicious.[153] Yet Dante, Petrarch and Savonarola used similar
metaphors, when describing the secular ambition of the Papacy. Having
pointed out a weakness in this important series of documents, I will
translate some obviously genuine passages which illustrate Sarpi's
attitude toward reform.

Writing to Leschassier upon the literary warfare of James I., he says it
is a pity that the king did not abstain from theology and confine
himself to the defense of his princely prerogatives against the claims
of Rome. He has exposed himself to the imputation of wishing to upset
the foundations of the faith. 'With regard to our own affairs [_i.e._ in
Venice], we do not seek to mix up heaven and earth, things